CCC News & Insights

Repairable vs. Total Loss: How AI Can Help You Know Early (and It Makes All the Difference)

By Allyson Santapau – CCC Associate Director, Solutions and Consulting

Connecting the Auto Physical Damage Claims Journey with CCC® First Look plus CCC® Estimating and CCC® Valuation Suites4

It's no secret that the insurance industry is dealing with a host of challenges that can impact the way your claims team operates. For one, a staggering 25% of carrier employees are expected to retire within the next few years.1 This could put added strain on those who may be less experienced and new to an appraiser or adjuster role.

At the same time, complexity is increasing for both vehicles and their repair methods,2 potentially slowing down the claims process. Loss Adjustment Expense (LAE) and indemnity costs are rising as well2 due to disconnected Auto Physical Damage (APD) workflows, errors leading to overpayment, and delayed communication between you, vehicle owners and 3rd parties.

With all this to deal with, and the unchanging fact that there are hundreds of line items to consider and unique rules to follow for each claim, it's more important than ever to empower your team with the right tools to help them make informed, consistent decisions.

Ask yourself this: have you or anyone on your team ever mistakenly selected a repairable channel for a total loss vehicle? If so, that choice could have resulted in multiple tows, storage costs, and delays to both your team and the consumer. Not ideal.

This can happen because of silos in today's claims process, with information unable to connect seamlessly from one part of the journey to another. Too often, teams have to wait to receive the data and photos they need, often as late as appraisal.

So, what's the solution? Earlier insight can help inform the next best step of a claim, offering AI-powered prediction of point of impact, repairability versus a total loss, and more.

This begins with CCC® First Look, an intelligent claims management solution connecting key information and photos from multiple sources to an APD claim, immediately after First Notice of Loss (FNOL).

This means that, at claim creation, vehicle details such as VIN, odometer readings, and vehicle location can be digitally collected. This information is then automatically made available to claims handlers within their workflows.

Photos of vehicle damage can also be easily ingested – no need to wait days. These can come from a vehicle owner, either through a guided app experience or shared directly from their phone's camera roll, a tow provider4, salvage vendor, repair shop, or appraiser.

CCC's AI analyzes these photos, identifies those appropriate for downstream use, and provides claims teams with the actionable information they need.

Scenario 1: Repairable

If this vehicle is predicted to be repairable, CCC® Intelligent Estimating uses AI on those same early photos to predict:

  • Vehicle damage
  • Repair or replace operations
  • Remove and install operations
  • Labor hours
  • Blend procedures

It can also tap into CCC's supplier connections to assess parts availability.3,4

CCC Intelligent Estimating uses this information, and your own unique rules, to either build a preliminary estimate for appraisers to review and finalize, or a complete estimate that can be auto-approved if your thresholds are met.

Scenario 2: Total Loss

Alternatively, if AI predicts the vehicle is a total loss due to photos from CCC First Look, your adjusters can be informed of this earlier in the claims process.3,4 Through the CCC Valuation suite, teams could then view the vehicle damage photos as well as CCC Intelligent Estimating's line-level repair estimate within their own workflow.4 From here, the CCC Valuation suite can help guide next steps, such as calling their attention to missing details or to potential prior damage.4

The above scenarios offer an example of how powerful CCC First Look combined with CCC’s Estimating and Valuation suites can be when they are connected and sharing information with each other and your teams.3,4 These solutions are designed to:  

  • Lower cycle time through simplified data collection and by using AI to better support and inform your team.
  • Improve consistency by bringing in more data and photos to help navigate the hundreds of complex decisions needed within the claims journey.
  • Reduce costs through:
    • Better prediction of repair needs
    • Improved part sourcing
    • Minimized accrual of daily fees that can result from misidentification or lag times

To learn how you can better manage the many actions that take place after an accident and accelerate claim resolution, contact us.

1PropertyCasualty360
2CRASH Network and CCC Crash Course 2024
3When contracted for additional solution packages.
4CCC has full discretion to make or not make any product or service described herein commercially available to any person in any form or under any conditions or any timeline.